Gold and silver ready on the launchpad. Countdown on.

From Clive Maund:
Over the past week silver has behaved as predicted in the last update, breaking down from its potential Pennant pattern and dropping gently back towards support in the $29 – $30 area, to enter our “accumulation zone” shown on its 4-month chart which turned it higher on Friday, and while the pattern could still be a bear Pennant with an amended lower boundary this is looking considerably less likely – it looks like the Pennant has aborted. It is thus thought that we are late in the base building process.

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The times of greatest opportunity are usually masked by danger, and there is certainly great danger at this time of Europe failing and thus a lot of associated fear in the markets. Could things get even worse and tank the markets, possibly including gold and silver? – yes, of course they could and we looked at this blood curdling scenario last week, but whether or not this occurs one thing is clear – the normally right Commercials are banking on a resolution of this crisis and soon, and if things do get even worse it is safe to assume that their positions will become even more lopsided. The silver COT charts remain at their most bullish ever, and Commercial short positions dropped even more last week to a record, which just by itself suggests that silver is bottoming.
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Read more @ CliveMaund.com
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Related:

Gold Price Bounces On Talk Of More Fed Asset Purchases

The Eurozone Wags the Gold and Silver Dog

Silver in Late Stages of Base Building

Silver Price to Regain Bullish Momentum

Gold Aborts Bearish Pennant, Now Looks Strongly Bullish

Gold & Silver Market Morning, October 24, 2011

James Turk Presents the Case for $11,000 Gold

1 in 10 Brits Have Gold Stash Worth More Than Savings in Bank – (Good Thinkin’ Brits!)

God is Sure Not Talking to the Vatican about Economics

 

From Economic Policy Journal, Monday, October 24, 2011

It appears that factions within the Vatican have decided that God has dumped free will as a guiding principle and replaced it with a George Soros-type type plan for a central economic authority.

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a "global public authority" and a "central world bank" to rule over financial institutions that, according to the Vatican, have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises, reports Reuters.

"Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority," was at times very specific, Reuters notes, calling, for example, for the Soros promoted taxation measures on financial transactions.

"The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence," it said.

It condemned what it called "the idolatry of the market" as well as a "neo-liberal thinking" that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems.

"In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale," it said, adding that world economics needed an "ethic of solidarity" among rich and poor nations.

These are some real head scratchers. Hoarding of goods on a great scale? Collective greed?

The Vatican also called for another Soros favorite the establishment of "a supranational authority" with worldwide scope and "universal jurisdiction" to guide economic policies and decisions.

Such an authority should start with the United Nations as its reference point but later become independent and be endowed with the power to see to it that developed countries were not allowed to wield "excessive power over the weaker countries".

Hopefully, Tom Woods can shed some light on what is going on at the Vatican. 
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Related:

The Vatican Calls for Global Usury

The Vatican Calls for a 'Supranational Authority' (aka One World Government)

Vatican document discover disease and then recommends more disease

Vatican Calls for ‘Central World Bank’ to Be Set Up

Update: Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Vatican Exorcises Call for Global Central Bank

It's beginning to look more and more like the "Vatican call" for a global central banking authority was the opinion of one guy, who overdosed on George Soros globalist thinking. The paper proposing the central bank is gone from the Vatican's web site.

David Kramer has the details:

Yesterday, I linked to a report that an affiliate of the Vatican (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace) had issued in which it calls for a supranational Authority (i.e., One World Government...Guess what? That report is now gone from their website.

 

The European Financial Crisis in One Graphic: The Dominoes of Debt

From Zero Hedge:

by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds

The dominoes of debt are toppling in Europe, and there is no way to stop the forces of financial gravity.

After 19 months of denial, propaganda and phony fixes, the political and finance leaders of the European Union are claiming a "comprehensive solution" will be presented by Wednesday, October 26-- or maybe by the G20 meeting on November 3, or maybe on Christmas, when Santa Claus delivers the gift global markets are demanding: a "solution" that actually pencils out and that forces monumental writeoffs of debt and thus equally monumental losses on European banks and bondholders.

There have been any number of insightful descriptions of what's going on beneath the artifice, spin and lies, for example:

Four Facts that PROVE the EFSF (rescue fund) Doesn’t Matter At All (Zero Hedge)

Revised Troika Forecast Sees Total Greek Debt-To-GDP Peaking At 186%: Here Is What Happens Next (Zero Hedge)

There Is No Bailout Spoon: The Math Behind The €2 Trillion EFSF Reveals A "Pea Shooter" Not A "Bazooka" (Zero Hedge)

Citi Expects A 76% Haircut On Greek Debt (Zero Hedge)

EU Bank Stress Test: When No. 1 Financial-Strength Ranking Spells Doom (Bloomberg)

I have summarized the fundamentals in this one graphic: the European dominoes of debt. Simply put, there is no way the EU authorities can stop the first domino--Greek default or equivalent writedown of its impossible debt load--from toppling the over-leveraged banks which will be rendered insolvent when forced to recognize their losses.

That leaves each nation with the politically unsavory option of bailing out its premier banks with taxpayer money, and squeezing the money out of its citizenry via higher taxes and austerity. That assumption of bank debt will in turn trigger downgrades of heavily indebted sovereign nations such as France, moves that will raise rates and make the bailout even more costly to taxpayers, who will also be suffering from reductions of income due to global recession.

Once the banks and bondholders accept a 50%-75% writedown in Greek debt, then the other debtor nations will be justified in demanding the same writedown in their crushing debts. This dynamic leads to estimates that 3 trillion euros will be needed to bail all the players out. Alternatively, total losses will equal 3 trillion euros, wiping out banks and bondholders of sovereign debt.

The German economy is simply not big enough to fund a 3 trillion-euro bailout. Germany has 81 million people and its GDP is $3.3 trillion; the EU GDP is roughly $16 trillion. Compare those with the U.S., with 315 million people and a GDP of around $14.6 trillion.

As an act of self-preservation, Germany will be forced to either exit the euro outright or cloak its withdrawal with a "euro 1 and euro 2" scheme, a scenario I first laid out in March 2010: Why the Euro Might Devolve into Euro1 and Euro2 (March 2, 2010). (Other recent entries on the end-state of the European debt crisis:)
The Eurozone's Three Fatal Flaws (September 21, 2011)
The Dynamics of Doom: Why the Eurozone Fix Will Fail (July 25, 2011)
Why The European Union Is Doomed (March 28, 2011)

In any event, the last domino, the artifice of a single currency, will fall one way or another.

It's important to understand that the supposedly "prudent" economies of France, Germany, South Korea and Canada are just as heavily indebted as the U.S. or "drowning in debt" nations such as Italy. In the long view, is Germany's load of 284% of GDP really that different from Italy's 313%? Yes, the mix of debt is different, but the point is that all of Europe, and indeed the developed world, is overloaded with debt: state, bank and private.

The idea that leveraging more debt can resolve this gargantuan over-indebtedness is beyond absurd. (Source: BusinessWeek)

It has recently come to light that in the worst-case scenario (i.e. reality), "solving" Greece's debt crisis would absorb the entire EFSF Rescue Fund's 400 billion euros. By all accounts, every estimate of Greek tax revenue is overstated, and every estimate of its expenses understated; Greek GDP is collapsing. In all probability, the reality is worse than anyone is willing to confess, which means this chart is already outdated and hopelessly rosy:

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Way back in August, the euro was reckoned to be 20% above fair value of 1.15 to the U.S. dollar; once the dominoes start toppling in earnest, what will the euro's fair value be? Parity, or perhaps even lower? Why hold euros when the end-game is already visible?

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He/she who gets out first gets out best.
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Related:

The Vicious Cycle At The Heart Of Europe's Crisis

Greece : « A country being bled white and destroyed by those who claim to save it 

Euro Summit: Real Greek Numbers Threaten To Consume EFSF 'In One Gulp'

IMF pulls the plug on Greece as EU leaders fail to reach agreement on debt rescue plan